Week 1 is Done!!!

We officially survived week 1 of Intensive therapy! Day 5 was another hugely successful day. Since K’s feet were looking good our therapists thought it would be ok to go back to mostly standing work today. That is 3 hours of K being on his feet today! This is by far the most standing he has ever done in his life and took it like a champ.

The morning started off rocky, he was tired and not really feeling it. He worked hard despite the fact, but he didn’t talk much and I could tell he was ready to be done by the end of the hour. I was super nervous the whole day would go this way. Lucky for us the 3 hour break was just what he needed. He snacked, watched some TV and just vegged out.

When we went back he was ready to rock and roll. He practiced standing, he threw and caught balls while standing, he walked on a treadmill, he walked with his walker, he tried walking with canes, he practiced stepping up and down a step and did some core work. I can’t even believe how much he is able to do. Honestly if I worked out as much as he had this week I probably wouldn’t be able to get off the floor! The power a kid has is simply amazing.

I am going to do a quick wrap up here of our week.
Biggest Gains: confidence in his ability to stand with more limited assistance. He started the week not feeling comfortable at all standing without holding on to something and by the end of the week he was confidently able to let go of things while standing up. Core strength has increased tremendously. He started the week barely able to do a sit up, even with a ton of assistance, with the 3lb medicine ball. Today he was able to do a couple with much less assistance. He could plank on a vibration table for 3 whole minutes with almost no assistance! A plank is hard enough for 3 minutes but on a vibration table this is seriously amazing.

Final thoughts: I am 100% sure that I made the right choice in making this trip happen. With all this said, this week has been way more exhausting for me than I expected. I knew that K would be worn out (I mean he is doing ALL the hard work), but I am run down. Probably more mentally but this leads to physical exhaustion for me. The stress of traveling, navigation around a new city, making sure I have all the schedules down, trying not to forget the other medical day to day stuff we need to do, making sure we are both fed and hydrated, and lugging around all our equipment multiple times a day has really taken it out of me. Also having to be “on” socially all the time. This introvert is exhausted. That wraps up this week. We will be taking it very easy this weekend (especially since the weather is predicted to be very cold her).

I will leave you with some pictures today.